One of the best-known names in the North East home improvement industry is creating 12 jobs after setting up its own skilled installation team.
Warmseal has been one of the North East’s largest suppliers and installers of windows, doors, and conservatories for more than 25 years, and provides a wide range of products to customers right across the region.
Up until now, Warmseal has used independent fitting engineers to install its products, in common with most of the rest of its industry.
But now, as part of plans to provide defined standards of service, as well as to help attract new people into the industry, it is recruiting six new Warmseal installation teams, each comprising an experienced fitter together with a new apprentice.
To provide the capital required to set up the new team, Warmseal has turned to NEL Fund Managers to secure a six-figure investment from the Finance For Business North East Growth Fund that NEL manages.
It’s the second time that Warmseal has worked with NEL, with a six-figure investment made in 2015 enabling the business to upgrade its IT systems through a move to a cloud-based network and server solution provided by Aspire Technologies in Heworth.
The first investment also supported enhancement to Warmseal’s marketing activities and further developments around its windows, doors and other products.
Managing director Brian Pears says: “Our success has always been based on treating its customers properly, and future proofing our IT infrastructure through the capital that NEL provided first time round has been a central part of ensuring we are able to keep doing this.
“We have a very loyal and longstanding independent installations team, many of whom have worked in the industry from its inception, but we know that there is currently a lack of new blood coming into the industry and wanted to act to ensure we will have the skills we need for the long term.
“Bringing in a mixture of experienced and apprentice fitters will create an environment in which everyone can learn, and both the company and our customers will benefit from the wider range of skills that we can offer directly.
“This is a bold move for us, but we are confident that it also will be a commercially rewarding one over time, and that it will add an extra dimension to a very strong product offering that remains successful within our target audiences.
“We’ve had a positive relationship with the very professional NEL team over the last couple of years, and it made sense to extend our relationship when we were looking at our different options for funding this project.”
David Thomas, investment manager at NEL Fund Managers, adds: “The Warmseal management team has taken a very far-sighted approach to securing their future commercial growth, and we’re very pleased to be continuing our successful relationship with them.”
For more information about NEL’s investment criteria, visit www.nel.co.uk or contact the investment team on 0845 111 1850.